The technical community has long recognized the importance of supporting a main power supply with a backup or standby power supply for those systems, such as computer systems and data storage systems, which can ill afford the loss of data and system down-time. If the utility power (i.e., ac-line) fails, the backup power supply operates to ensure that the system still has power. Some systems have a plurality of enclosures. In general, each enclosure of a system houses electronic components that perform a particular function. Each enclosure can have its own main power supply, and some systems, such as those that support redundancy, can have enclosures with a plurality of main power supplies. Each main power supply can require a separate backup power supply.
Accordingly, the assembly of such systems can be complex because of the many wires, cables, and power cords needed to interconnect properly the various enclosures. Failure to connect a backup power system correctly to the main power supply could result in a catastrophic loss of data should the utility power fail and the backup power supply not be connected to provide backup power. Thus, the technical community has devised various tests to verify whether the backup power supply will be available in the event of an ac-line failure.
Many tests, however, provide a false sense of security because the tests focus on verifying whether the backup power supply is operational, and not whether the backup power supply is actually connected to the main power supply. For instance, a system assembler may believe that a backup power supply is connected to a first main power supply, but is in fact connected to a second main power supply. A test of the functionality of the backup power supply determines that the backup supply is functioning properly, i.e., able to deliver the necessary power if required. The backup power supply may even respond properly to commands and queries. But such tests, while proving functionality, do not prove connectivity to the main power supply that needs the backup power. An assembler may deliver this system to a customer believing the system is operational, but in this case, if the first power supply fails because the utility line fails, the backup power supply will not supply the necessary power to the appropriate main power supply. Thus there remains a need for a system and method that can conclusively test the connectivity between a backup power supply and its corresponding main power supply.